Electrified vehicles including hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rely on a traction battery to provide power to a traction motor for propulsion and a power inverter therebetween to convert direct current (DC) power to alternating current (AC) power. The typical AC traction motor is a 3-phase motor that may be powered by 3 sinusoidal signals each driven with 120 degrees phase separation. The traction battery is configured to operate in a particular voltage range. The terminal voltage of a typical traction battery is over 100 Volts DC, and the traction battery is alternatively referred to as a high-voltage battery. However, improved performance of electric machines may be achieved by operating in a different voltage range, typically at higher voltages than the traction battery.
Many electrified vehicles include a DC-DC converter also referred to as a variable voltage converter (VVC) to convert the voltage of the traction battery to an operational voltage level of the electric machine. The voltage from the VVC may be converted from DC to AC to drive an electric machine using a power inverter. The electric machine may include a traction motor that requires a high voltage and high current. Due to the voltage, current and switching requirements, an Insulated Gate Bipolar junction Transistor (IGBT) is typically used to generate the signals in the power inverter and the VVC.